A puzzle of two halves for me. The bottom half went in fairly easily, but I came a bit unstuck on the NW corner, so decided to start looking around for a theme to help out. At which point I spotted Tottenham’s very own (Jonathan) WOODGATE across the bottom and (Dimitar) BERBATOV across the top. Would Eimi by any chance be a Spurs fan?

All the missing answers fell into place after that and I was done and dusted before I got off the bus. Good stuff, I enjoyed this one.

Unsure on some wordplay though, so any pointers would be appreciated.

Across

9

REPROVE – REP,ROVE. I usually think of ‘reproof’, so didn’t get this straight away. A lovely surface reading though

11

CENTESIMO – (SET INCOME)* – Old currency of Uruguay (and Italy)

12

RALES – R,ALES – A new word for me. ‘A rattling sound from a diseased lung’, so says Chambers

13

IAMBI – I,AM,BI(sexual)! My fave clue this one. Very cheeky

14

ELONGATED – A good surface here with ‘as coverage for’ as the container indicator for O(pe)N in ELATED, but is ‘golf’ G? Have never come across that before if so

16

HEALTH INSURANCE – (CHELSEA HURT IN AN)* Not sure about the ‘fringe players’ bit here as the rest of the clue seems to work OK without it

20

FREEZABLE – ‘May get solid’ is the defintion here. F[-i]RE + [evidenc]E +(BLAZE)* is how we get there.

22

ORANG – ORANG[-e]. As in Orang-outang

24

RURAL – RU(RA)L[-e] ‘The Gunners’ here being the Royal Artillery, rather than Tottenham’s bitter North London rivals, who surely never break the rules!

27

ANGULAR – Can’t quite work this one out, other than the definition being ‘bony’

28

NULLIFY – (FILLY[-R]UN)*

Down

1

BRACKISH – RACK (e.g. of lamb) in BISH (a mistake or blunder)

2

EPONYM – E(PONY)M Until Berbatov revealed himself, I spent far too long assuming ‘space’ must be SP, rather than the old printer’s favourite EM

3

ROSE TINTED – There were a few options with this one I thought, so it took a while to spot SET in ROTE + D(ead)

4

BERIBERI – The last answer I got, and I think it’s right, though I must admit I can’t work out the wordplay!

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Yes, Ali, I’m afraid eimi is a Spurs fan – and being the editor entitles him to inflict this fringe obsession on the rest of the right-thinking (i.e. Arsenal-supporting) solvership! (“Gunners break half the laws in the country” indeed!)
;-).

Congratulations on your first blog, Ali, and I’m glad you enjoyed the puzzle.

The break-up of ‘angular’ was A-N-GULAR, n being chess notation for knight (piece) and ‘gular’ meaning ‘of the throat’ (it’s in all three of the main dictionaries).

I had intended Berbatov and Woodgate to be unheralded NINAs, but when I discovered CHELSEA amongst the letters of HEALTH INSURANCE, running parallel to the (fringe) players I couldn’t resist the reference. For those unfamiliar with the beautiful game, Berbatov and Woodgate scored the goals that beat Chelsea (in an upset) in the Carling Cup Final. This knowledge wasn’t crucial to solving the puzzle, but it obviously helped a few solvers who were in the know.

As for a backlash from several Indy setters, there are some advantages of being crossword editor. Should they enquire about the non-appearance of any puzzle containing propaganda for the Woolwich Wanderers, I can simply reply (in an Alsatian accent, of course) “I didn’t see it”.

Thanks all for the clarification on the bits I missed, some of which were admittedly fairly obvious. In my day-to-day solving, if the answer clearly fits, I often don’t stop to worry too much about all the constituent parts, which for somebody who’s trying to put some of his own puzzles together is a bit daft really. Still, it’s good to have a refresher of some of the basics every now and again.

I don’t avidly follow any one team, but I’m liking the idea of the Gooner contingent trying to sneak some NINAs in!